How You Get The Girl
by Sass and Sex
Summary: Jed and Abbey in college before they started dating.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This story is unashamedly inspired by the Taylor Swift song of the same title. Not even a little sorry about it. TSwift makes me feel things. Also, I'm not officially putting this in my Bartlet History because I have no idea where it would fit, but it takes place in the same universe as the rest of the series.

**How You Get The Girl**

"How about another drink, Jethro?" Abbey asked, stumbling over to the couch with a bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand.

"Abbey," he growled in warning.

"What?" Her voice was louder than she had probably intended, but it made Jed laugh.

He reached over and took the bottle out of her hand. "You're drunk."

"What's your point?" She leaned over him to try to take the bottle back, but he held it out of her reach.

Jed just laughed and gave it back to her. "It's your place. If you want to get sick all over, that's up to you."

Abbey smiled and grinned at him as she took a long swig straight out of the bottle. When she saw the slight surprise pass over his face, she asked, "You want some?"

He thought for a moment before matching her smirk. "Yeah, sure. Pass it over."

They sat on the couch of her apartment for a while, passing the bottle of Jack back and forth and talking inanely about nothing in particular as the end of the year party went on around them.

"Where's Ron?" Jed asked, realizing that he had been sitting with another man's drunk girlfriend for almost an hour.

"He has a project due tomorrow, so he couldn't come," Abbey explained. "I'll see him tomorrow after he turns it in. But he has exams to grade for that class he TA's for. So I'll fly back to Boston with you tomorrow afternoon, and he'll be coming next week."

"You two have any plans for the summer?"

"Other than his birthday in July, no, nothing. I'm spending a few weeks in D.C. with my dad when he has that annual conference."

"Oh that's right, you were telling me that a while back, weren't you?"

She smiled. "Yes, I was. Nice of you to listen."

Jed didn't say the words fighting to escape his lips. He wouldn't tell her that he always listened to her, that anything and everything she said entered his mind and took ahold of him like a mystical spell.

If there had been an awkward silence following her comment, she didn't notice. Abbey was busy drinking. "Are you going to be spending all summer at your grandfather's farm?" she asked.

Jed was a little surprised that she remembered that. He couldn't have mentioned the farm more than once or twice in the six months since they had become friends. "Yeah, I help out whenever I can. My grandfather has people running the actual farm aspect of it, but an extra set of hands is always useful."

"Do you ride horses and milk cows and feed pigs?"

There was a dark twinkle in her eye that let him know she was teasing him. "We don't have pigs," he replied very seriously. "We do have cows, but I don't milk them. Not since I was really little and my grandfather wanted to punish me for something."

"But the horses?"

"Yes, I ride the horses. There's a big black one I love."

"What's his name?"

"Her name is Myrna."

Abbey cocked her head and furrowed her brow. "That's a strange name for a horse."

"Oh sure and Meniscus is a perfectly normal name for a cat."

"I was four when we got that cat! And when my mother said I could name him, I picked my favorite word. I had no idea what it meant, but I heard my father mention it when he was talking about a patient. It's still one of my favorite words. I loved that cat," she told him. Her voice was increasing in volume and some of the words were getting a little slurred.

"Yes, you told me that," he said, taking the almost-empty bottle of whiskey away from her.

"I did?"

"Yes, you did."

Abbey realized that he had taken the bottle again. "Hey, give that back!" She lunged at it and fell into Jed. She couldn't quite get up and began cackling loudly. Most of the sound was muffled in Jed's chest, where her face was currently pressed.

Jed felt his whole body shake with the force of her laughter. Something tightened in the pit of his stomach as he gently lifted her shoulders up and away from him. She was still laughing.

Millie Griffith, Abbey's roommate, came wandering over. "You two look like you're having fun," she commented.

"I always have fun!" Abbey announced. She flailed her arms with enthusiasm, accidentally hitting Jed in the jaw. "Oh no, I'm so sorry!" She immediately sat up and gently touched the slightly red spot on his face. "I hit your face. And it's such a nice face." Abbey turned to her roommate. "Millie, doesn't Jed have a nice face?"

Millie laughed. Abbey had definitely had more than anyone was expecting. She was going to have an awful time packing tomorrow morning. "Yes, Abb, he's got a nice face."

Abbey beamed and looked back to Jed. "I like your face."

Jed felt more than his jaw turn red. "Well thanks. It gets the job done."

"Here, look at me, you two." Millie grabbed her camera and pointed it at Jed and Abbey. They looked over and smiled as Millie snapped the photo.

Abbey turned back to Jed. "I'm sorry I hit you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he insisted.

"Okay, if you're sure…"

"I'm sure!"

"Good." She grinned and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Jed sat there in shock, but couldn't help but grin. Neither of them noticed that Millie had taken another picture of them.

Just then, another guest walked in. Millie greeted the newcomer. "Hey, look who's here! I thought you were busy with your project!"

"I just finished. I figured it was early enough for me to catch the party in full swing. And who am I to pass up an opportunity with the greatest girl in the world, huh?"

Millie walked over and said quietly, "She's bombed. I think you probably should have come earlier."

"Oh dear." He walked over to the couch where Abbey was sitting, her limbs in all different directions. "Abbey? You okay?"

Despite the fact that there were two of him, Abbey's eyes tried to focus on his face. "Ron! Hi!" She reached out to him, not really able to lift her head off the back of the sofa.

Ron smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Jed stood up immediately. He didn't say one word. He just walked out. Abbey was too drunk and too busy kissing her boyfriend to notice. Millie, however, saw the look on his face as he left. She frowned, feeling like she had just witnessed a very important tragedy in that moment. She went into her bedroom to put the camera away, making a mental note to get the film developed as soon as she could.


	2. Chapter 2

Jed left Abbey's place and immediately went to Confession. He had felt so many feelings for Abbey that night, and it all filled him with tremendous guilt. The lust he struggled against was suddenly the least of his worries. When Ron had shown up to be with his girlfriend, Jed had been filled with a jealous rage. He was angry at Abbey for being with Ron, and he envied Ron for being with Abbey. Jed prayed for a long time, desperately seeking guidance and strength to prevent those awful feelings from returning.

The next morning, Abbey awoke on the floor of the bathroom in her apartment. Her eyes blinked open, violently opposed to the bright light. Millie was there, holding her blonde hair back with one hand and brushing her teeth with the other. She spit and rinsed her mouth before turning to Abbey with a smile.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?"

Abbey glared as she sat up. "I hate you."

"I'm pretty sure that hatred should probably be directed to the bottle of Jack Daniels you consumed last night," Millie told her with a smirk.

"How did I end up here?" she asked, looking around and noticing that she was still in her clothes from the previous evening, but she no longer had shoes. And goodness only knew how her hair looked.

"I had Ron carry you in here when you passed out. I sent him home after that, but he did offer to stay. I checked on you a few times during the night. You just slept."

"What time is it? I have to pack and see Ron and then go to the airport with Jed," Abbey said, hauling herself off the floor.

Millie took Abbey's hands to help her up. "It's only nine. You've got plenty of time to pack. And Ron isn't going to meet you for lunch because he saw you at the party last night, so he just asked that you call him when you get to your parents' house."

Abbey paused. "Wait, Ron was at the party last night?"

"Yeah, but you were already pretty bombed by the time he got here."

"Oh." Abbey suddenly felt very embarrassed. She had no memory of anything at the party other than the fact that it occurred. Jed had been there. They had a good time. Hadn't they? She had no idea. Her head was throbbing too much to really think too much about it.

A few hours later, Abbey was in the cab on the way to Jed's apartment. They did this every time they went back home. She would cover the cab to the airport, and he would cover the one from the airport back to their respective apartments on the return trip to Notre Dame.

Jed put his suitcase in the trunk of the cab and got in the backseat next to Abbey. He still wasn't in the best mood and certainly didn't want to spend the next four hours sitting next to her.

"Hi," she said with a gloomy expression.

He couldn't see much of her face because she was leaning on her arm against the door and she had sunglasses hiding her eyes. "Hi," he replied, equally gruff.

Abbey assumed that Jed was just as hungover as she was, so she didn't bother forcing any conversation.

Jed sat next to her on the way to the airport and all the way to Boston on the plane, barely speaking two words to her. He felt like he wanted to yell at her, but every time he got close to actually doing it, the guilt bubbled up again. What could he say? That he was pissed at her for kissing her boyfriend? He had no right to feel that way, let alone say anything about it. So he just stewed silently next to her. If Abbey noticed, she didn't say anything about it.

Jed had thought that he would get over his jealousy and anger after a day or so. After all, he wouldn't see Abbey until they went back to school in August. He was sure to miss her.

Abbey got over her hangover by the time her father picked her up from the airport and drove her home. She instantly felt bad for ignoring Jed during their whole flight. She wouldn't see him until they flew back to Indiana, and she missed him already. The next day, Abbey wrote a letter apologizing for her bad mood and asking him to write her back when he could. She sent it off to the address she had for him in New Hampshire and eagerly awaited his response.

He got her letter and read it over and over and over for days. But he didn't write back. Why did she do this to him? Why was she so kind? Why did he get excited when she wrote that she would miss him? Why did he feel a surge of affection over the way she wrote his name or the way the capital letters she wrote were obscenely bigger than the lowercase letters after them? Why did he care so much? After a week, Jed folded the letter and buried it in the back of a drawer in his desk so he wouldn't have to think about it. He didn't send a response.

Abbey went to D.C. with her father a few weeks later and had a wonderful time. She thought about Jed wherever she went. He was an American Studies minor, and he had regaled her with stories of the Founding Fathers for hours during their Friday night study sessions. Despite the fact that she hadn't gotten a letter from him, she wrote him another. Abbey figured that his reply was probably waiting for her back home in Massachusetts, so she wasn't too worried about not having heard from him yet.

_Dear Jed,_

_I'm in D.C. with Dad right now, and I can't help but wish you were here with me. He's in conferences a lot during the day, so I'm left all alone. I wander the city, visiting the memorials and the Smithsonian and everything else of interest. I do love it here, but I find myself with so many questions that I know you'd have the answers to. I think I'll start carrying a notebook with me and writing things down to ask you when we get back to school. Maybe I'll make you answer them all on the plane back to Indiana. _

_I hope you're having a nice summer at the farm, and I certainly hope this letter finds you well. I miss seeing you and talking to you, but I guess letters will have to do for the next two months. I'll be here for another week, then helping at my father's practice for the rest of the summer. I hope to hear from you soon._

_-Abbey_

When Jed got this second letter, he didn't let himself pour over it as he had the last one. He read it a few times, leaving it by his bed for a day or so, before he shoved it back with the other one. Out of sight, out of mind. He got out a sheet of paper and sat down with a pen to reply but after he wrote _Dear Abbey_, he couldn't bring himself to continue. What could he say? How could he stop himself from saying everything he wanted? Ron Ehrlich's big dumb face popped into Jed's mind and he crumpled the attempted letter into a ball and threw it away. He went to church instead.

Abbey waited for weeks for a response. None came. She decided that there was no way Jed would ignore her on purpose. He was probably at his grandfather's farm and the letters had gone to his parents' house in Exeter. That had to be it. He just hadn't gotten the letters yet. Abbey then decided that it might be fun for Jed to come home to a stack of letters. After that, she wrote one every week for a month.

Jed opened each of the four letters as soon as they arrived, and each one sent him into a deeper depression. He couldn't escape her. Even when she was in another state, she was always there, in his mind and in his heart. He was supposed to become a priest, wasn't he? That was God's plan for him. He'd known that for years now. Jed Bartlet was going to become a priest so he could be a leader to a community, a source of strength in strife, a teacher and a helper to all in need. That's what he wanted to do. Had the Lord put Abbey in his path as an obstacle to overcome? A test of his devotion to God? If so, he would surely prove his faith.

By the time August rolled around, Abbey had overcome her optimistic denial. She was pissed. Even though she'd see Jed in ten days to fly back to school—assuming he was still planning on meeting her at the Boston airport—Abbey wrote one last letter.

_Listen jackass, I don't know what the hell I did to you or why you're ignoring me, but you'd better cut it out. If I do not hear from you before we spend three hours on a plane together, sit next to someone else. So unless you've been in Alaska or you've broken both your hands and can't find someone to write a damn letter for you, we aren't friends like I thought we were._

When Jed got that letter, he instantly felt a flood of guilt. A different kind of guilt. Never mind that his feelings for Abbey were getting in the way of his life, he had hurt her. And that was something he had never wanted to do. Abbey Barrington only deserved the best the world had to offer. Jed had to make it right. He got in the car and drove.

By the time he made it to Massachusetts, it had started to rain. Hot, sticky summer rain. When he reached Abbey's town, he stopped at a gas station to ask directions to her address. It was almost dark by the time he arrived at her house. With no umbrella or jacket or anything, he got out of the car to knock on the door.

Dr. Barrington answered it. "Can I help you?" he asked. He had kind brown eyes behind his square-rimmed glasses and a mop of curly black hair on top of his head. He looked with interest at the young man dripping on his porch.

"Hello, sir. My name is Jed Bartlet, and I'm here to see Abbey."

"It's nice to meet you, Jed. Abbey talks about you all the time. Would you like to come in?"

"No thank you, sir. I'll just wait here."

Dr. Barrington closed the door, allowing Jed to wait out in the rain. He went into the living room to get Abbey. "Jed Bartlet is here to see you," he told his daughter.

Abbey leapt up. "He what?!" She ran to the door and ripped it open. "What are you doing here?!" she asked in surprise, her green eyes lighting up when she saw him.

Jed had taken a few steps back to give Abbey some space. "I'm here to see you. I got your letters."

Her brow furrowed. "Letters?" she asked, emphasizing the plural S.

"Yeah. All of them."

"Go to hell!" She slammed the door.

Jed couldn't help but start to laugh. He stepped off the porch and stood in the rain. "Fine by me, Abbey," he shouted. "If I wait here long enough, I'll probably drown!"

Abbey came back outside and stood out on the porch. "Are you insane!?"

"I must be," he replied, still standing in the pouring rain. "I'm sorry, Abbey. I'm so sorry."

"Why didn't you respond to any of my letters?" she asked, her voice calming. She wasn't mad anymore. Just hurt.

"Because I couldn't. I didn't know what to say. I was so mad."

"At me?"

"Yeah, at first. But mostly at me. I shouldn't have let that hurt you. I want you, Abbey. For worse or for better. I'd wait forever if I had to. Forever and ever."

Abbey couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was like a dream. It couldn't be real. A huge smile broke out onto her face, wrinkling her nose. She took a few steps forward, ready to leap into his arms.

But someone grabbed her around her middle, holding her back. "DON'T YOU DARE!" a voice bellowed into her ear.

Jed looked at her, sad and dejected. "I'm sorry. I won't bother you anymore." He turned and walked away.

Abbey kicked and flailed her arms and tried to scream, but no noise came out.

Her heart skipped a beat and she awoke with a start.


	3. Chapter 3

Abbey's whole body spasmed involuntarily. Her eyes snapped open to give her a view of the ceiling above the bed. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing her heartbeat to slow. She turned her head to glance at the clock on her bedside table. But something else caught her eye. In a simple wooden frame was the picture of Abbey kissing Jed on the cheek from the party she and Millie had thrown at the end of their sophomore year at Notre Dame. Millie had found the picture in a box of college mementos in her attic and had given it to them as an anniversary gift a few days earlier. Abbey reached over and took the frame from its place and sat up in bed.

She nudged her husband beside her. "Jed?" she whispered.

He grumbled incoherently.

"Jed, wake up," she said a bit louder.

"What is it, Abbey?" he asked, rolling over and squinting his eyes when she turned on the light on her side of the bed.

"Do you remember this?" she asked, showing him the picture.

"Yeah sure. God, look how young we were. We were what, twenty?"

"This would have been May of '65, so yeah, twenty." Abbey stared at the picture and ran her fingertips along the image of their faces. She could almost feel his cheek on her lips as she stared. And the expression on Jed's face. That smile. How could she have ever not noticed how in love with her he was?

"Abbey?" Jed sat up, knowing there had to be a reason she woke him up at two in the morning.

"After this happened, were you pissed at me?"

The question took Jed by surprise. "Actually, yeah. I was."

She turned to look at him with a small smile. "Because of Ron?"

He frowned. "Yeah," he mumbled.

Abbey smirked and brought one hand up to place it tenderly on his cheek. They stayed that way, quietly looking at each other for a moment. But she took her hand down and returned her attention to the picture, her brow furrowed in frustration. "How did we resolve it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't remember. You were mad at me, but I don't remember how we made up."

Jed shifted to face her more directly. "Abbey, what's this all about?"

She sighed. "Oh it's silly. I had this dream. Nightmare, really. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't real."

"What happened in your dream?"

"Well it was the day after the party and I was really hungover so we didn't talk at all on the plane to Boston, like we normally would have. And I sent you half a dozen letters that you ignored, so I wrote one last one calling you a jackass."

Jed laughed. "That sounds like something you'd do now. But you wouldn't have done that when we were still in college. Especially not before we started dating."

"So you didn't ignore my letters?"

"Abbey, I have never once let any of your letters go unanswered in my entire life."

"I didn't think so," she responded with a small smile.

He waited for her to continue, and when she didn't, he prompted, "So was that it? That was the nightmare? I ignored your letters when we were twenty?"

"No, in the dream you drove to my parents' house and stood in the rain and apologized and told me you wanted me and you'd wait forever. But when I went to run to you, someone grabbed me and held me back and I tried to kick and scream but you just walked away. Then I woke up." Abbey hung her head, slightly embarrassed of her own subconscious.

"Aw, honey," Jed said with a chuckle, reaching over to take her in his arms. "Well I can promise that if you were ever kicking and screaming, I would never walk away."

Abbey was feeling sillier by the minute. "Yes, I know that. But you never told me, Jed. How did we make up after that summer?"

"Well you probably don't remember because we never got in a fight over it. I was in a bad mood on that plane ride, and you were hungover, but the next day I was over it. I'm surprised you even remember. You were pretty out of it. We wrote letters back and forth all summer and we met at the airport and flew back to Indiana together in August. And that's all there was to it." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head before adding, "And I'm sure you had a lovely summer with your boyfriend."

Abbey scowled and elbowed him in the ribs. "When are you going to let that go, huh? I had boyfriends before I met you. And I had a boyfriend after I met you, but you were going to be a priest, so you were off limits. And if you'll recall, the second you were no longer going to be a priest, I was yours."

"Oh is that how I got the girl?"

Her nose wrinkled as she grinned. "Yep. That's how you got the girl. And she saved you from a life of celibacy."

"And thank God for that!" Jed pulled her back onto her back and began kissing her deeply. Abbey moaned into his mouth and clumsily put the picture frame back on her bedside table so she could be unencumbered as she started unbuttoning her husband's pajamas.


End file.
